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^ THE SECOND CAPTURE 

OF LOUISBURGc^^^c^^^ 

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_ A recent novel, which opens in 1762, describes the deHght 

"^ and astonishment witii which the successive and quickly 

recurring victories of the English over the French and 
Spaniards, affected the public mind of that day. On one day, 
it was said, that the Windward group of Islands had been cap- 
tured from France ; on another that Havana had fallen ; on 
' a third that Manila and the Philippines had been taken. Each 

man saluted his neighbor with the inquiry, "What next?" 
The occurrences of the past year recalls to us the events of 1762. 

This has witnessed the extinction of Spanish power in this 
hemisphere — that witnessed the banishment of the power of 
France east of the Mississippi. 

It is, however, to only one event in the series of English 
and Colonial successes that I desire to call your attention 
this evening — the second capture of the City of Louisburg, 
on Cape Breton, m 1758. 

This capture — the second which occurred in the Colonial 
Wars — has.cerhaps been rather dwarfed in importance by the 
first captur^Tn 1744, in which the New England Colonies 
took so large a part, and which was regarded as an event 
largely of their achievement. 

The general Society of Colonial Wars has already done 
nwicJi to commemorate the first siege of Louisburg; but the 
second capture has some points of interest which should not 
be overlooked, especially by our New York Society. 

Louisburg had been returned to France by the Treaty of Aix 
La Chapelle in 1748, (in accordance with the plan of mutual res- 
titution of conquests on which that Treaty was based) much 
to the chagrin of the American Colonies. France maintained 
a considerable armed force at this point, and from its harbor 
ships sallied out for the destruction of New England com- 

A paper read before the Society of Colonial Wars, New York, March 
20, 1899. 



merce. Louisbttrg was commonly spoken of as the American 
Dunkirk — a nearby enemies' port convenient for the equip- 
ment and refuge of privateers, and in too dangerous proximity 
to be regarded with equanimity. Its position and relations 
to the war which ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763 made 
its final fall, by the second capture in 1758, therefore, an event 
of no ordinary importance. 

The final struggle for supremacy between the English and 
French Colonies, in America, opened in 1754, with the Brad- 
dock Campaign, although this expedition preceded any ac- 
tual declaration of war, as that did not occur until February, 

1756. 

The result of the war became assured by the subjugation 
of Canada in 1760, and the culmination of the contest, and the 
permanency of the English success, was clinched by the vic- 
tories over the French at Martinique, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, 
Tobago, and Grenada ; and over Spain (the belated ally of 
France) at Havana, in August, and at Manila in October, 
1762. 

The West India victories of 1762 were looked upon as the 
harbingers of peace, which was, in fact, concluded at Paris 
on February 10, 1763. The Province of New York had a 
large share in their achievement, for many of the troops which 
captured Havana sailed from New York, after having been 
in camp for some months on Staten Island, and were under 
the command of General Monckton, the Governor of the 
Province, and of Lord Albemarle. 

The expedition of 1758 to Louisburg marked the turning 
of the tide of success in favor of the English arms in the nine 
years' contest, which commenced in 1754. LTp to and includ- 
ing 1757, the French arms in America had been nearly every- 
where successful. 

The Braddock Campaign of 1754 had ended, as is well 
known, in slaughter and retreat. 

Fort Oswego had been captured by the French under Mont- 
calm, in 1757, an event which was looked upon as securing 
communication between Canada and the Mississippi Valley. 

Fort William Henry had fallen in the same year, under cir- 



cumstances which were far from creditable to the Enghsh 
commander. 

Lord Louden had led an army of 6,000 men from New 
York to Halifax in 1757, with a view of laying siege to Louis- 
burg, but had ingloriously returned to New York at the end 
of the season, without attacking, because of the report that 
the French at Louisburg had nineteen ships of war with which 
to oppose the seventeen of the English Admiral, Halbourne — 
a disproportion in odds which did not always daunt English 
seamen. 

A new master-spirit came, however, into control in 1758. 
William Pitt became Secretary of State in England — succeed- 
ing the incompetent Duke of Newcastle in the management 
of the war — and from that time the tide of battle turned, and, 
with the exception of the Ticonderoga fiasco, in the early 
Summer of that year, success followed success, until all of 
America east of the Mississippi was swept of French domina- 
tion. 

The first of these successes was the capture of Louisburg 
on July 26, 1758. 

The expedition was under the command of Admiral, the 
Hon. Edward Boscawen, as to the Navy, and under General 
Amherst, as to the Army. Twenty-two ships of the line, 
fifteen frigates, one hundred and twenty smaller vessels, and 
a land force variously stated at from nine to eleven thousand 
men were engaged in the expedition. 

Generals Lawrence and Whitemore and Wolfe were in com- 
mand of brigades. 

In General Wolfe's brigade served one of the most strenu- 
ous opponents, in Parliament, in after years, of the taxation 
of America, Isaac Barre. 

New York was represented by many, and, among others, 
by the brave Richard Montgomery, who in after years died 
for his country, under the walls of Quebec. Richard Monck- 
ton, afterwards Governor of the Province of New York, had 
a prominent place in the expedition. 

Louisburg was defended by the Chevalier de Drucour and 
a garrison of from 5,000 to 6,000 men. He had five ships of 



the line and seven frigates and smaller vessels, four of which 
he sunk across the mouth of the harbor to prevent the ingress 
of the British fieet. 

Those who know the city and harbor of Louisburg will re- 
member that the city and principal fortifications occupy a 
promontory at the Southwestern part of the harbor. The har- 
bor opens to the Southeast, and the entrance is partly occupied 
and defended by several small islands, the principal one of 
which is Goat Island. South of the City, and beyond Black 
Point, or Cape Noir, is Gabarus (or Gabreuse) Bay, which 
was the scene of the landing of the Provincial troops in the 
capture of 1744, and, at the second siege, was the place of 
landing of the brigade led by Wolfe. 

With an enemy in command of the sea, and with an army 
landed at Gabarus Bay, Louisburg is essentially invested and 
cut off from succor. 

On June 8, 1758, after waiting some six days for a violent 
surf to subside, a force, under General Wolfe, consisting of 
four companies of grenadiers and light infantry, and the New 
England Rangers, effected a landing. Divisions were rowed 
to the shore in small boats, under the fire of seven frigates, 
at three points in Gabarus Bay — White Point, Flat Point and 
Fresh Water Cove. Wolfe's division approached Fresh 
Water Cove, and were met by a hot fire, which caused signals 
to be given in return, but the boats of Lieutenants Hopkins 
and Brown, and of Ensign Grant disregarded or misunder- 
stood the orders and pushed on, and Wolfe himself leaping 
into the surf and wading ashore, came to their support, and 
the French were driven from their positions. 

On the nth of June, artillery and supplies were landed, and 
the French retreated to the fortifications of the town proper. 

A few days later. General Wolfe circled the city to the 
Northern Promontory which projects into the harbor oppo- 
site the city, and which was occupied by a lighthouse and for- 
tifications, and succeeded in capturing those points. Placing 
a battery on Lighthouse Point, on the North of the harbor 
entrance, he was in a position to command the French bat- 
tery on the Island in the center of the harbor exit, and to 
reach the shipping in the harbor itself. 



I need not recall the incidents of the siege which have been 
so graphically told by Parkman, nor detail all of the courte- 
sies which took place between the chivalrous commanders. 

The Chevalier Drucour, after the losses on both sides had 
become considerable, sent word that the garrison had the 
advantage of having a distinguished surgeon, whose services 
he placed also at the command of any wounded officer of the 
besiegers, and General Amherst, on the arrival of a supply 
ship from the West Indies, sent in a flag of truce with a 
present of fresh pineapples, with his compliments to the brave 
wife of the French General. 

The siege advanced, step by step, for weeks, drawing the 
lines tighter and tighter around the doomed city, but marked 
by little incident except a partially successful sally of the 
French on July 9th, which resulted in the death of the English 
Earl of Dundonald. 

On July 2 1 St, three of the largest French ships, the Entre- 
prennant, Capricieux and Celebre, took fire, the Entrepren- 
nant from shells from the Light House Point or Maine bat- 
tery, and the others from the Entreprennant. On July 22d, 
the citadel was burned and the town became practically a ruin. 
Forty of the fifty-two cannon were disabled. On the 25th of 
July, two English captains, Laforey and Balfour, entered the 
harbor at night in small boats and captured and burned the 
seventy-four-gun ship Prudent, and towed out the sixty-four- 
gun ship Bienfasant, with all on board, from under the walls 
of the town into the Northeastern harbor, where she was 
secured. 

The celebrated navigator, James Cook, took part in this 
assault. 

On the 26th of July, Chevalier Drucour capitulated — yield- 
ing to the importunities of the inhabitants, although himself 
desiring to defend against the impending assault. 

I have here one of the original oiflcial notifications by Ad- 
miral Boscawen of the capitulation of the city. It is addressed 
to Governor Denny, of Pennsylvania, and is probably one of 
several notices in similar form sent to the different Colonial 
Governors. The laconic terms in which he announces this 
great event are worthy of imitation. 



"Namur in Gabreuse Bay, 27th July, 1758. 
Sir: 

I have the pleasure to acquaint you that the Town of Louis- 
bourg surrendered yesterday. A copy of the capitulation I 
send enclosed, and am Sir 

Your Most obedient Humble Servant, 

E. Boscawi;n. 

P. S. The ships taken, burnt or destroyed are as follows, 
viz. :" 

Prudent, 74 guns; Burnt by the boats of the fleet under 
Capt. Leforey. 

Entreprennant, 74 guns ; Blown up and burnt by shot from 
the Marine Battery. 

Capricieux, 64 guns ; Burnt by the Entreprennant. 

Celebre, 64 guns; Burnt by the Entreprennant. 

Bienfaisant, 64 guns ; Taken by the boats of the fleet, towed 
from under the Walls of the Town into the East Harbor, by 
Captain Balfour. 

Apollo, 50 guns; Chevere, Biche, Fidello, Frigates; Sunk 
by the enemy across the Harbor's mouth to prevent the fleet 
from going in. 

Diana, 36 guns ; Taken by his Majesty's ship Boreas. 

Echo, 26 guns; Taken by his Majesty's ship Juno. 

To William Denny, Esq. 

The capture of Louisburg, after the disastrous failures of 
the preceding years, created great enthusiasm both in Amer- 
ica and England. 

Captain Amherst, brother of the General, carried the news 
to England. Eleven stand of captured colors were borne in 
triumph through the streets of London and deposited in St. 
Paul's Cathedral. Admiral Boscawen and General Amherst 
were honored with ofificial congratulations, but General 
Wolfe's dash and resourceful energy made him the popular 
hero, and insured for him the command of the expedition 
against Quebec in the following year. 

New York celebrated the news by an ofificial dinner at the 
Province Arms Tavern on Broadway, and by an illumination 
and fireworks. 



Looking back, now, to the series of events which marked the 
fall of French power in America — commencing with this cap- 
ture of Louisburg — we see and recognize the inevitable na- 
ture of the conflict which then took place. The French and 
English systems could not exist side by side on this continent. 
The time had come when the autocratic system of France and 
the free and popular methods of the English Colonies, inten- 
sified by the ancient antipathies of the parent nations, came 
to the point of an irreconcilable clash. 

Many of the ostensible causes which precipitated war, seem 
now, as we look back upon them, most trivial in their nature, 
but it is clear that a "psychological moment" had arrived for 
conflict which made specific complaint almost unnecessary. 
Encroachments upon asserted territorial rights of each nation 
on the American continent were made the pretext for resort 
to arms, but it is difficult for us now to appreciate how vague 
territorial claims then were, or how comparatively unknown 
and undetermined were all boundaries in America only one 
hundred and fifty years ago. 

England laid claim to nearly the whole of North America 
under the coast discoveries of Cabot, in 1496, and under the 
settlements which were effected early in the seventeenth cen- 
tury. France asserted jurisdiction in Canada, and Southward 
to the Ohio and along the Mississippi to its mouth, by virtue 
of the discoveries and travels of Joliet, De La Salle, D'lber- 
ville, Crozat and others. 

By the treaties of Utrecht, in 1713, and Aix La Chapelle, in 
1748, attempts had been made to specify French and English 
territories, but so little was known of actual boundaries, and 
perhaps so little cared about the actual delimitations of vast 
stretches of unexplored country (not supposed to contain the 
A^aluable minerals for which nations were then seeking) that 
boundaries were necessarily indefinite. 

In the neighborhood of Louisburg itself dififerences of 
opinion existed as to the extent of territory claimed, which 
left wide latitude for contention. 

"Acadia" had been ceded to England by the treaty of 
Utrecht without designation other than that it was according 



8 

to its "ancient limits." But by some "Acadia" proper was held 
to include not only the peninsular of Nova Scotia, but the 
Island of Cape Breton ; by others only Nova Scotia proper, 
and by still others the name was applicable to a region extend- 
ing from Central New Brunswick to Southern Pennsylvania. 

In a work entitled "The Present State of North America," 
printed in London in 1755 (which I have here before me), the 
prevailing lack of accurate information about America, even 
at that late date, was stated as follows : 

"Every person that knows anything of North America in 
general, cr of any one Province in particular, must be sensible 
that the histories or works of Mather, Old Nixon, Neal, Salo- 
mon, etc., who have chiefly copied each other, and of all that 
have copied after them relative to North America, might al- 
most as properly have called their works Histories of Prester 
John's, or of the Hottentots' country, as histories of North 
America, or any other title they bear. Even Mather himself 
said Old Nixon, in his British Empire in North America 
had eighty-seven falsehoods in fifty-six pages. In short, there 
is not one work yet published to the world in our language 
that in any degree deserves the title of a History of North 
America, but Smith's History of Virginia, and Douglas's 
summary, historical and political, of the first settlement, pro- 
gress and improvement, and present state of the British settle- 
ments in North America, etc., published a few years ago at 
Boston, in New England." 

And again, the same work says : 

"Most, if not all, of our maps also, preceding that of Dr. 
Mitchell, are very erroneous and injurious to His Majesty's 
rights. Such erroneous books and maps, as may be supposed, 
are of more consequence than people generally imagine, for, 
besides misleading ourselves, the French quote them against 
us even in national discussions, as authorities." 

As to the proposals that had been made to adjust differ- 
ences, the same work said : 

"An author has also proposed a plan for settling the limits 
of North America with the French, whereby he gives the 
French two-thirds of the whole for the sake of enjoying the 



other third in peace and quiet. Now, can any man, upon close 
reflection, imagine that if the French were suffered to avail 
themselves of and settle two-thirds of North America, we shall 
enjoy the other third in peace ? If we submit to this and may 
judge of the future by what is passed, they wiU soon have the 
other third also, and by making such proposals, does it not 
look as if he doubted the validity of our right to the whole of 
our claim?" 

With such a prevailing uncertainty as to both territory and 
claims, it is no wonder that the acts of aggression relied on 
as causes for war, were somewhat indefinitely set forth. 

The French were supposed to be drawing a cordon of posts 
in the interior, to surround and hold back the coast Colonies, 
but the boundaries of those Colonies were stated in terms 
which seem somewhat singular at the present day. 

The same work, "The Present State of North America," 
attempts to summarize the existing causes of complaint in 
1755, and, among others, enumerates the following French 
"aggressions" and "outrages :" 

(i) That they have "settled seven villages in the Province 
of Massachusetts Bay on the South banks of the St. Laivrence 
River.'" 

(2) That "as to the Province of Nezv York and the five na- 
tions hereditary and conquered country, the French have got 
possession of that part of it which lies to the Northward of 
the St. Lazvrenee River an~d the five Great Lakes." 

(3) That the French have "built two forts on Beef River, 
which issued from the South side of Lake Erie in His Majesty's 
Province of Pennsylvania." 

(4) That in 1751 they built a fort in the Province of Virginia 
"at the junction of the Rivers Missouri and Mississippi." 

(5) That "in His Majesty's Province of Georgia the French 
have one fort built at the mouths of the Mississippi." 

These and other "insults, injuries and barbarities," com- 
mitted (as the author said) "by the very people we have the 
name of peace with," seemed to the men at that time to call for 
war. Indeed, it had even then begun without formal declara- 
tion, and Louisburg was the forerunner of the successful issue. 



